IRNA � Director-General of Health Technology Development Office of Iran's Health Ministry said on Monday that some Iranian knowledge-based companies, in a parallel attempt, were trying to produce the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this Iranian year (will end March 20, 2021).

Hossein Vatanpour told IRNA that Iranian-made vaccines for HPV and seasonal flu will also be available by that time, adding that Iran is advancing shoulder to shoulder with pioneer countries in the field.

The official also said that three knowledge-based companies were working to produce HPV vaccine, but the effort was delayed because of coronavirus outbreak.

Iran's COVID-19 death toll mounted to 10,670 on Monday by 162 more deaths during the past 24 hours. So far a total of 225,205 Iranians have been confirmed infected with the COVID-19, some 186,180 of whom have been recovered from the disease.